Stargazing Art

Magnus felt a sense of direness from the situation in front of him.

"I know nothing of these things." He muttered in frustration. "I saved her from the most immediate danger, but this latent threat is something my abilities can't cover."

Curing someone required some type of utility-based ability. That, or a lot of technical knowledge.

Both of which Magnus did not have.

"Should I use Mirror World Thief? But I need to save Spirit Energy for the tournament. I only have about 60% of my Spirit Energy ever since that last fight. A cast of Mirror World Thief plus Master of the Hivemind would use up 40% of my total reserves, leaving about 20% left."

Magnus had a certain human in mind that he could use for healing. It was someone from the tournament. The young man with angel wings and a divine presence.

Purification was an all-encompassing healing ability, at least according to the shout caster.

"Ah, I don't care. I'm doing it."

Magnus shrugged off all his worries like he always did. Whatever consequences this meant, he would deal with it when it faces him. At least that way, things would be more thrilling.

He switched with Klaris and began his invocations.

"I am the thief of mirrored creation,

The cloned child,

The descendant of greens,

And the walker of reflections."

Spirit Energy ebbed and flowed, allowing Magnus to enter the Mirror World.

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.

.

In the Mirror World.

Past Magnus was floating in his favourite place in the tournament's waiting room, waiting for his turn to fight.

Klaris' face silently appeared among the young men and women. He glanced around and searched for his target.

'He's here. That's good.' He thought to himself.

And so, he inched towards him.

It took a few minutes of gradual movement, but Klaris made it close enough. He was able to mingle with the students from the same school his target was in.

'Now I just have to deal with the guards.' Klaris thought as he unslung his Earthling rifle.

Indeed, this young man—the angel, Restiel—had guards. It was because he was quite the famous character in Quarteridge. He was an orphan, talentless and born without anyone to help him grow.

He was a nobody. Someone supposedly destined for mediocrity.

But when his Blessing became known once his Curse was activated, things started to change for him.

He was scouted by the Interstellar Trinity, and he was told to aim for Archaeon University. The best school in the Heaven-Touching Mountains.

Restiel was a treasured presence and even had a lot of fans who adored his looks and style.

His Curse was famously known as the Vow of the Angelic. A curse that bound him to certain morals. His Blessing though was worth such a Curse. It was a 5-liner, called the Archangel of Divine Retribution.

Ratatatatatatatatat!

Out of nowhere, the sound of gunfire shook the tournament's waiting room.

Several of Restiel's guards found themselves shot in the chest and abdomen from the ambush. Their Spirit Energy shields did not seem to function against these bullets at all when normally it should.

After all, this was a rifle from a different world. It was a gun that ran on different rules of reality, brought into Thare through the Mirror World. Similarly, the Mirror World powered its abilities by mirroring Earth's rules around it.

Klaris shot from the hip. He had expected the others to be unable to initially identify what he was doing— Earth's guns looked a lot different from the guns they knew of, after all.

Thus, the guards weren't able to be guards at that moment.

They were sent to disarray as Klaris rushed forth and tackled Restiel with ferocity. As they tangled in a grapple, with Restiel suddenly going crazy with his abilities, Klaris was heavily injured.

A few of his bones broke and shattered, and blood oozed out of his nostrils.

But he held on as he invoked Mirror World Thief once again.

"I am the thief of mirrored creation,

The cloned child,

The descendant of greens,

And the walker of reflections."

And thus, they disappeared from where they stood.

.

.

.

Back in reality, Klaris coughed up blood. His lungs were likely punctured during that ordeal so he hurriedly switched with Magnus.

When Magnus came back, he could still feel the rush of adrenaline from the combat instance earlier. He had been half in control and half watching as a spectator. It was a weird feeling to share a body, but with Master of the Hivemind, it all worked out.

Now, however, there was an angel lying on the floor.

'I'm not going to have a cat form for the time being...' Magnus thought as he summoned Javelin and released his control over the little cat.

Javelin now looked to be in a peaceful sleep as it slumped into Magnus' arms. Its body was still alive, and only its mind did not have any function.

Magnus held him carefully as he placed a hand on Restiel and began his invocation,

"I am the master and maker of the Hivemind,

The mind behind minds,

The one who stands above humanity,

And the one civilizations despise."

Suddenly, bits and pieces of memories flooded into Magnus' mind.

"Hm?"

Sensing these memories, Magnus found it odd. It wasn't as complete as he expected. The memories did not reach the state of being complete as they did with Klaris.

Thus, Magnus couldn't help but get distracted. He scanned the memories for several moments to find out what was wrong.

Those several moments turned into a few minutes, and it was only then that he figured out what was wrong.

"All there is are memories of the body..." Magnus squinted, "Muscle memory, training techniques, and knowledge of his Blessing and Curse. There's nothing about his day to day life, his secrets, or anything else."

'Could it be because I did not assimilate the actual body? Is it the absence of their minds due to the process of transferring them from the Mirror World to Thare?'

Magnus thought as he mobilised Restiel to start the purification process on So-Young.

'I probably never sensed it with Javelin because Spirit Beasts like him were more instinctual beings. His skills and thoughts stayed as muscle memory. He was more feral in comparison to Mallow and Jistill.'

As Magnus wallowed in his thoughts and theories, Restiel glowed in a fierce white light. This white light then flowed from him and into So-Young's wounds.

Slowly but surely, the pale-green discolouration of her wounds began to return to normal. A disgusting substance leaked out of her pores and was vaporized by the white light.

It took several minutes before the entire endeavour was completed, and Magnus ended up with almost zero Spirit Energy.

That was when he realised something.

"Restiel... He practices a Spirit Technique! Right!" Magnus slapped his forehead, "So that's what those memories were!"

Inside Restiel's mind was a manner in which he trained himself. It had grown instinctual to him due to how long he'd been doing it.

It was a Spirit Technique, and its name was—

"Stargazing Art..." Magnus muttered in surprise just as a scroll appeared before his face.

[[ Item Scroll ]]

[[ Tear this Scroll to receive the item, Spirit Bead. ]]

'And there went the Trial.' Magnus laughed.

Turning Restiel into one of his members was a decision that would affect a lot of his plans. He would have to hide from those spying eyes until he could get Javelin back.

He also couldn't show Restiel to the world lest someone notices that there were two Restiels walking the streets of Thare.

This meant that there was a high likelihood that he wouldn't go to the finals of the Starry-Eyed Bout.

"Let's just hope that despite not completely competing until the end, it counts as a completed Milestone," Magnus muttered as he tore the Item Scroll and received an item out of thin air.

Instantly, Magnus felt his Spirit Energy regeneration increase by a certain percentage—which is huge given the Curses at his disposal.

With Restiel a part of the squad, Magnus had access to a 3-line Curse and a 5-line Blessing. A one-of-a-kind phenomenon.

{=[ Archangel of Divine Judgement ]=}

- Naturally and slowly morphs you into an Archangel as Spirit Energy is cycled through the body. When invoked, allows you to tap into the powers granted by Divine Energy,

Invocation:

"I am the warrior of the Heavens,

The seeker of light,

The judge and jury,

And the image of perfection.

Bow before my grace and glory."

{=[ Vow of the Angelic ]=}

- Requires one to always follow a set of morals. Breaking these morals would cause you weakness until your eventual death.

Verses:

"The rules chain you with bindings of light.

For you are the image of something greater.

Break your own image, and you break yourself."

{=[=o=o=o=o=]=}

Examining this information, Magnus sighed in satisfaction as he held the 'sleeping' Javelin in his arms. A Scroll appeared before his face.

[[ Return Scroll ]]

[[ The danger has been successfully averted. Your Scribe will thank you. Tear this Scroll to return. If you do not return in 5 minutes, you will be stranded on the Monster Continent to die a horrible death. ]]

"It seems like I have completed this little derailing task," Magnus nodded to himself as he took one more glance at the unconscious So-Young.

"Thank you for your hard work, Miss Scribe~"

Rrrrrrip!

Magnus thus disappeared.

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.

.

With no way to properly escape the eyes that spied on him whenever possible, Magnus opted not to return to the tournament.

There was the option of using his remaining Spirit Energy to assimilate Javelin again into the Hivemind, but that would mean Magnus would have nothing to use when it came to the actual tournament.

Either way, he would lose.

So it was better to not embarrass himself instead. It wasn't the end of the world.

With such thoughts, Magnus went into hiding. He had to do his utmost best to lose his pursuers by switching with the injured Klaris every now and then. Their ability to track him down was astounding.

Thankfully, they did not have the same Blessing that that one detective had. Amini's ability to track people down was simply on another level.

Thus, the people were starved of a public favourite and left guessing as to why Magnus had suddenly disappeared.

It flooded the Starry-Eyed Bout forums with questions and theories. Some fans worried for the young man whose talents seem bright while others expressed schadenfreude at his inability to fight in the finals.

He was theorized to have a good chance to win, after all. As long as he played his cards right, the Gravity Fairy would have many opportunities.

But Magnus paid these posts no heed. He knew what the internet was like, so he instead put his focus on another Scroll that appeared in front of his face.

[[ Milestone Notification ]]

[[ You have achieved a milestone in integrating with Thare's society. Your reward grade has been boosted to 1.5-stars. ]]